Homing in on Peripherals

N64's third-party peripheral library is still in its first wave. N64.com looks at the current crop

By IGN Staff

A shadow of irony rests on the current crop of Nintendo third-party peripherals, due to the very few products available. Thus, a full feature is not required to cover these products -- yet.

Instead, we take a quick look at what's available, and provide a short breakdown the peripheral's main components. Specifically, we look at the item's value, what games it works well with, compatibility, Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), design, and special functions. In the second half of the article we look at future products appearing in the U.S this year.

Presently, only two companies are in the market (in the U.S.), Interact and Mad Catz, of which we have listed products.

Mad Catz

Analog Mad Catz Steering Wheel (unlicensed)

MSRP: $69.95

Compatible with all games (but, of course, it plays better with driving games).

Design: Slightly bigger controller than Nintendo's own; recommended for people with bigger hands; Enables bigger throw (the arch between controller and end of joystick).

Special Functions: Programmble Turbo (super fast-fire good for games like Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for quick-fire shooting of Wampas, for instance); Slow Motion.

Interact Multimedia Products

SuperPad Plus (a Performance game, unlicensed)

MSRP: 24.99

Compatible with all games.

Recommended for all games.

Bizarre design -- the D-Pad sits slightly above and to the left of the analog joystick; z-trigger is also found on the left side.

Special Functions: auto-fire function and slow motion.

Shark Pad Pro 64 (unlicensed)

MSRP: $29.99

Compatible with all games.

Recommended for all games.

Design: Slightly thicker than standard controller, recommended for people with larger hands. Clear glass casing is cool-looking, but is slightly slippery. Larger analog stick, a little stiffer than Nintendo's.

Special Functions: Auto-fire function and slow-motion function.

Arcade Shark (unlicensed)

MSRP: $59.99

Compatible with all games.

Recommended for all games, but designed especially for fighting games.

Design: Styled like an arcade board (and keeps the A-B and four C button configuration; includes L, R, and Z buttons, too). Better than standard Nintendo controller for fighting.

Special Functions: Removeable (unscrewable) nob for either analog or digital controls; suto-fire joystick and auto-fire function.

Memory Card Plus (unlicensed)

MSRP: $29.99

Compatible with all games requiring memory saves.

Recommended for all games requiring memory saves.

Design: Fits inside all controllers.

Special Functions: Storage capacity is four times that of all other mem packs (1 MB). Contains 4 pages, each with 123 slots of memory.

Future Products

Mad Catz Fight/Flight stick (unlicensed)

Release Date: May arrive this summer (July/August)

MSRP: approximately $49.95

Compatible with all games.

Recommended for fighting and flying games, but will work well with games like Blast Corps, Doom 64, Turok, etc.

Dual-purpose controller; The left side has an arcade-style controller with eight buttons, right side has a flight stick handle with hat switch.

Special Functions: Hat switch.

Interact Products V3 Racing Wheel (fully licensed)

Release Date: Late May/early June

MSRP: $69.99

Compatible with all games, but designed for racing games.

Recommended for all driving games, allegedly works well even with Mario Kart 64; works with Cruis'n USA, Top Gear Rally, SF Rush, etc.

Design: Steering wheel and stick shift comes with acclereration and brake pedals. Allows 300 degrees of rotation. Self-centering spring design. Configurable controls. Can be mounted on table tops, but is designed to fit between legs.

Special Function: Tilt adjustment on steering wheel.

MakoPad (fully licensed)

MSRP: $24

Compatible with all games (See SharpPad Pro), but this is fully licensed.

Design: Multi-colored capsules match present array of controller colors (and includes clear colored design to match Interact products). Sold as a six pack or in single units.

Special Functions: The "six-pack" includes six different colored mem packs (yellow, red, black, green, blue, grey) which are like snap together models. Players can take the chip (included in the package) and place into any one of the like-colored capsules to match their controller.

Mad Catz products can be found at any major toy retail outlet. On the Net: www.madcatz.com

Interact Game Products can be found at any major toy retail outlet. On the Net: www.interact-acc.com